Beaufort's C.J. Cummings makes appearance in Sports Illustrated

A month after being featured in a story in the Washington Post and setting an American weightlifting record for his weight class at the USA Weightlifting National Championships in Salt Lake City, the 14-year-old Cummings finds himself featured in the Aug. 18 College Football Preview edition of Sports Illustrated.

Cummings is featured in the Faces in the Crowd section of the magazine, which features Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston on the cover.

The Beaufort High freshman set the weightlifting world afire when set an American weightlifting record for his weight class with a clean and jerk of 153 kilograms, or 337.3 pounds, July 19 in Salt Lake City.

Cummings broke a the record of 152.5 kg -- 335 pounds -- set in 2002 by then-25-year-old LeGrand Sakamaki. He got the record-breaking weight on his third attempt to become the youngest to break a senior American record.

The record was one of many for Cummings, who owns top marks in five different weight and age groups.

"C.J. Cummings has shown once more that he is the most exciting thing to happen to USA Weightlifting in decades," Bob LeFavi, a coach with Team Savannah weightlifting and professor of sports medicine at Armstrong Atlantic University who has worked with Cummings, said in July. "The Lowcountry should be proud that such an athlete came from this area. He has no peers -- not nationally or internationally."